Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC MSA — September 2026
Myrtle Beach Controller pay falls as national finance pay climbs.
Metro Controller advertised pay dropped to $103,639 against a rising national median of $113,754, while local Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst pay moved up moderately even as the broader metro unemployment rate held at 4.2%.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.2% — Sept 2026, vs 4.1% national rate
- Controller pay gap vs national: -$10,115 — Metro falling vs national rising moderately
- National Finance sector job losses: -129,000 — Since May 2025, mostly insurance carriers
- F&A hiring intent, H2 2026: 74% — Firms planning permanent headcount increases
Key takeaways
Local Controller pay is falling while national pay climbs.
Metro median Controller pay sits at $103,639, down significantly, against a national median of $113,754 moving up moderately. Widening gap suggests Myrtle Beach employers may be under-pricing roles increasingly benchmarked against remote-eligible national candidates.
Tax Specialist pay gap has become too large to ignore.
Metro median of $42,545 trails the national median of $65,842 by more than $23,000, with national pay rising significantly while local pay falls. Current conditions suggest this role is a flight risk for any employer competing against remote or multi-state tax functions.
Entry and mid-level analyst roles show the inverse pattern.
Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst advertised pay both moved up moderately in Myrtle Beach this month, even as national medians stayed flat or rose only modestly. May signal genuine local scarcity in analyst-level talent as leisure/hospitality growth pulls workers away from office-based finance functions.
National wage deceleration offers limited local relief.
September's 0.13% monthly earnings gain (3.0% year-over-year) came in below forecast, easing national salary budget pressure, but Myrtle Beach's mixed role-level pay movements suggest this metro is not simply tracking the national cooling. Budget models built on national wage trends alone risk missing localized pressure points in analyst and credit roles.
Median advertised pay by role — Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $87,509 | $103,639 | $115,334 | Significant decline | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant * | $74,965 | $85,723 | $87,731 | Moderate increase | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $65,374 | $72,974 | $79,407 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $33,836 | $37,485 | $40,570 | Moderate decline | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $36,776 | $42,545 | $42,545 | Significant decline | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst * | $46,863 | $66,839 | $71,798 | Moderate increase | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager * | $97,535 | $117,686 | $130,000 | Moderate decline | $128,139 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Local market conditions
Myrtle Beach's unemployment rate sits at 4.2% in September as nonfarm payrolls expanded by 29,000 jobs, with growth concentrated in leisure/hospitality and little movement across other major industries as peak tourism season winds down. South Carolina's parallel financial activities sector tracks a national pattern of contraction — insurance carriers and related roles account for most of the 129,000 jobs shed nationally since May 2025 — even as statewide Financial Activities employment held near 123,400 in June, suggesting Myrtle Beach Finance hiring remains more insulated than coastal metros with larger institutional finance footprints.
What it means
National Finance sector job losses are concentrated in insurance and large institutional functions, a dynamic that has limited direct bearing on Myrtle Beach's smaller, services-oriented Finance base, where Controller and FP&A Manager advertised pay are actually declining against rising national medians — a sign local employers are not competing on the same terms as national F&A talent markets. Headcount cost planning should account for the national talent-shortage signal (a 77% CPA and accountant Talent Shortage Index) even where local postings suggest softer pay, since candidate pools increasingly price against national, not metro, comparables. Consider reviewing Controller and FP&A Manager compensation bands against national movement before Q4 budget cycles lock in rates that may already be below what remote-capable candidates can command elsewhere.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Horry County unemployment has trended down from 4.4% in July amid peak-season hiring; watch whether the rate rises again as seasonal leisure/hospitality positions wind down into Q4, a dynamic that historically loosens the broader local labor pool Finance functions draw from.
Emerging pressure point: South Carolina's 33 WARN notices in 2026 remain concentrated in manufacturing and food/hospitality, not finance, but the DP World Spartanburg filing (205 workers, September 1) signals logistics-sector softening. Monitor whether displaced logistics or supply-chain finance talent enters the Myrtle Beach candidate pool.
Potential inflection point: National Finance and accounting leaders report 74% plan to increase permanent headcount in H2 2026 despite sector-wide job losses concentrated in insurance. Watch whether that national hiring intent translates into actual Myrtle Beach postings, or whether local employers continue relying on automation and shared services instead.
Expected: South Carolina's 2026 tax reform (1.99%/5.21% brackets, $14,000 unemployment wage base) phases further into effect this quarter. Factor updated effective tax and unemployment insurance costs into Q4 headcount cost models now rather than during close.
Methodology
Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay. WageScape observes 98% of U.S. job openings daily.
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